Art Critique # 3

This picture was done in charcoal and then a water color finish. The artist is unknown, but it originated in Britain, where the artist claims he lives. The picture itself has no specific title, but the site I found it on entitled it “Zombies on the March”. The focal point is the zombie’s facial expression, from his eyes to his mouth, agape with a scream of primal rage. The shading of the work is shown in the lead zombie’s black hair and dark black shirt, while its face and neck is a bland mesh of grey and white. The screaming zombie in the foreground is what takes up most of the composition, while the background shows other zombies bringing up the rear of the foreground’s leader. The balance of this work is a bit off. Most of the zombie’s head and shoulders dominate the left side of the work, leaving only grey fog to fill the unused spaces. The most overt emphasis in the picture is placed on the lead zombie’s decayed cheek and neck area, to accentuate the fact that it is of the undead. The background zombies are subtly visible, as the head zombie blocks the majority of their heads from view. The overall value of the work isn’t smooth and transitional, more like sectional, where each area of the zombie’s bust has its own pocket of value ranging from white to black without spilling into the other areas. The content consists of a total of 4 zombies in the picture, though the last 3 are only barely visible, and the last one way in the back by the zombie’s left shoulder is only noticed from his scalp. The work’s amount of gradation- The zombies, starting from the back, appear to be getting closer to the viewer. In this way, it looks like they are in different places, not uniform, as a zombie attack should be: wild and unruly.